Since the major oil spill from the tanker Torrey Canyon approximately 10 years ago, there has been a concentrated effort toward development of systems for confining and cleaning up oil spills. The nature of an oil spill is such that the forces tend to spread the oil over the top surface of the water at a rapid and undesirable rate. Accordingly, it is of great value to be able to contain the oil until it can be removed from the surface of the water in any of a number of different manners.
Naturally the location of the spill, and particularly, the nature of the body of water enters into oil containment apparatus design. The problems encountered in the open sea differ from those encountered in harbor or river locations.
Since an oil spill can occur anywhere where there is a body of water, confinement apparatus should preferably be portable and easily handled, towed and assembled to surround and contain the spill in a quick and efficient manner. Thus, many designs of containment booms are directed to an easy to handle compact structure which can be easily stored when not in use and which can be quickly and efficiently arranged in operable position for use.
It has also been found to be effective to employ protective containment booms as preventive devices in harbor areas. In this environment, the object is to surround the ship containing pollutants with a portable boom while it is in the harbor so that any pollutant spill is contained within the boom and can be cleaned at the desired time without the fear of it spreading and extensively polluting waterfront areas. The boom designed for this purpose can be easily withdrawn and stored when a ship is to leave the harbor and when reused when another ship enters port.
Throughout the last 10 years it has been fairly well determined that an effective type of boom for accomplishing the above features is one which is light weight, flexible, easily towable and is stable in the form of a floating boom when in use. Accordingly, various types of floating flexible booms have been developed with detachable and permanently mounted floats thereon. The detachable floats naturally facilitate folding of the boom when it is stored. However, of course, this also requires an additional step in setting up and storing of the booms since each float has to be attached and detached individually. Other types of floating booms which have been developed include rigid buoyant floats rigidly attached to the flexible boom structure. Alternatively, sealed inflatable portions of the flexible boom can be formed so that the boom can be inflated for obtaining a buoyant condition. The variety of floating boom containment structures are numerous as stated above, and as evidenced by the comprehensive compilation of structures in the publication of the Edison Water Quality Research Laboratory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency dated January 1973 and entitled "Oil Containment Systems". For purposes of the present improved floating boom, it is believed that the most significant background patent is U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,860. It will be noted that this reference shows a lightweight inexpensive towable floating boom with floats that facilitate the towing action, floating action and folding of the boom for storage purposes.